Pardon My Lamb Chop

This Columbia All Star Comedy (production number 9427) finds Gus Shilling discovering that a cranky wife (Dorothy Granger) isn't the worst thing after shell-shocked veteran Dick Lane shows up. Gus invites him to a lamb-chop breakfast---not an appealing breakfast to begin with---and learns that the sound of a whistle sets bells ringing in Dick's head.

Whistles, from one source or another, including Gus' wife who isn't all that thrilled about Dick coming to breakfast, start and Dick goes crazy. After a chase Gus is mistaken for the escaped insane man (Cy Shindell)from a local sanitarium and taken away by the doctors.

Hey, it beats going back home and having lamb chops for breakfast.

Gus Schilling and Dick Lane were Columbia's #2 comedy team (behind The Three Stooges. Producer Jules White often threw any two comics together in hopes of creating a new team, but Schilling and Lane had immediate rapport and terrific chemistry.

Their films run hot and cold, because director Edward Bernds tailored material especially for them, while director Jules White was content to remake old scripts and sketches introduced by other comedians. PARDON MY LAMB CHOP is very heavy on the slapstick; even veteran comedy foil Dorothy Granger takes her lumps in the name of comedy. Some of the jokes are extreme, which is par for Jules White, but the cast tackles the gags with enthusiasm.

Schilling wants to lend a helping hand to the next person he meets. Unfortunately it's crazed salesman Lane, who makes himself at home. Lane goes nuts every time he hears a whistle, and of course Granger has a whistle handy to call her dog. Also, for perhaps the only time in a Columbia short, the viewer is treated to an old burlesque sketch, in which the lunatic sees and hears things that the patsy can't, and the patsy gets caught up in the ridiculous situation.

For the burlesque sketch alone, this short is worth a look, with Schilling and Lane getting the maximum mileage out of it. Fans of Stooge-style slapstick should enjoy this.